That was not very clever: visiting the National Archaeological Museum on the last day of a two week trip through northern and central Greece. Of course, it was a nice summary of everything we’ve seen, but I think it would have been better to start over here. Ever a teacher, I might have used the museum’s splendid collection of sculpture to explain to my companions the development of Greek art.
That’s what you’ll find on the first floor: lots of sculpture in a series of rooms surrounding a large hall, which is devoted to Mycenaean art. There, you will find the golden objects from Mycenae that Schliemann found. The sculpture rooms surround it. Your tour starts with some kouroi and you can easily follow the growth to greater accuracy in representing the human body. When you’ve finished about a third of your tour, the Greek sculptors have mastered every aspect of anatomy, and you will pass along many classical sculptures, including two dazzling copies of the Diadumenus and the Cnidian Aphrodite. After that, more sculpture: the fourth century, Hellenism, and finally the Roman age.
On the ground floor, there’s also a series of rooms that contain metal art. Here, you will see the Anticythera Mechanism, but also collections of arrowheads from Marathon and Thermopylae. The Egyptian part – also on the ground floor – is a bit odd in a museum dedicated to Greek art, but the collection is too small to be exposed in a museum of its own and too important to keep stored away. In the Hellenistic part of the Egyptian collection, I noticed a statue of Hephaestion that I had never seen before.
Upstairs, you will find a marvelous collection of pottery and some objects that don’t fit anywhere else, like the Lemnian inscription, written in a language related to Etruscan. Next to it is a section dedicated to the investigations at Santorini, where some splendid frescoes have been found.
Do not forget to visit the basement. There’s a little café with a garden, where you will see some of the sculptures found in the Anticythera wreck. They have a certain beauty because they are partly eroded. I found the giant Heracles absolutely fascinating.
This museum was visited in 1989, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2010.
 Piraeus, Head of a bearded god
|
 Melos, Statue of Poseidon
|
 Larisa, Tombstone of Polyxena
|
 Athens, Pnyx, Lenormant Athena
|
 Megiste, Bellerophon sarcophagus.
|
 Eleusis, Relief of Demeter, Triptolemus, and Kore
|
 Alexandria, Alexander the Great (part of a group with Hephaestion)
|
 Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)
|
 Athens, Kerameikos, Alexander with a Lion's Pelt
|
 Athens, Stoa of Attalus, Attalus II Philadelphus
|
 Argos, Heraion, Sima
|
 Eleusis, Temple F, Cecrops and Herse
|
 Mycene, Wall painting of a griffin with a warrior
|
 Athens, Temple of Zeus, Portrait of Polemo of Laodicea
|
 Sais, Temple of Neith, Statuette
|
 Zeus and Ganymedes
|
 Mycene, Wall painting ("La Parisienne")
|
 Mycene, Boar's tusk helmet
|
 Lebadeia, Relief of Trophonius
|
 Athens, Kerameikos, Siren
|
 Lead figurine of Athena
|
 Piraeus, Julian the Apostate
|
 Gomphoi, Relief of Odysseus and Amphicleia
|
 Corinth, Plate with Demeter
|
 Aegina, Temple of Apollo, Statue of a wounded warrior
|
 Larisa, Tombstone of a man with a hat
|
 Athens, Kerameikos, Base of the statue of a wrestler
|
 Aegina, Ptolemy VI Philometor
|
 Eretria, Lekythos (Bosanquet Painter)
|
 Athens, Varvakeion Athena
|
 Argos, Heraion, Amazonomachy
|
 Piraeus, Theater, Head of Dionysus (classicizing)
|
 Argos, Theater, Statue of Aphrodite
|
 Athens, Kerameikos, Skull of Myrthis
|
 Athens, Agora, Late Geometric pyxis
|
 Mycene, House of the Warrior Krater, Warrior Krater
|
 Athens, Statue of a Minotaur
|
 Thebes, Head of Artemis
|
 Pharsalus, Krater with a four-horse chariot
|
 Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Palladion
|
 Marathon, Arrowheads
|
 Aegina, Tombstone of a young man, holding a bird
|
 Piraeus, Votive stela of a reclining Dionysus
|
 Thebes (?), Block statue of Prince Horwedja, governor and high priest in Heliopolis
|
 Nysa, Bouleuterion, "Little Refugee"
|
 Piraeus, Statue of a woman or Demeter
|
 Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus
|
 Eleusis, Tombstone of a warrior
|
 Athens, Kerameikos, Dipylon krater
|
 The fight for the body of Patroclus.
|
 Oropos, Aeolian-Ionic capital
|
 Dodona, Figurine of Zeus Keraunos
|
 Sparta, Statue of Julia Aquilia Severa, damaged after her death
|
 Alexandria, Hephaestion (part of a group with Alexander)
|
 Lycian portrait of Omphale
|
 Thebes, Tombstone
|
 Smyrna, Portrait of Caligula, reworked to resemble Titus
|
 Eleusis, Relief of a drunk Heracles
|
 Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of antelopes
|
 Epidauros, Temple of Artemis, Nike
|
 Decree of Tefnakht
|
 Megara, Statue of Dionysus
|
 Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)
|
 Thermopylae, Arrowheads
|
 Argos, Relief of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos
|
 Piraeus, Funerary stela of Damasistrate
|
 Olympia, Head of the boxer Satyros
|
 Hellenistic ruler
|
 Artemisium, Statue of Zeus
|
 Eucratides II of Bactria
|
 Corinth, Relief of a hoplite
|
 Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of boxers
|
 Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Head of Hera
|
 Piraeus, Funerary stela with ball players
|
 Mycene, Dagger with lion hunt
|
 Lemnos, Tombstone of an Etruscan (?) warrior
|